Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an ultrasound diagnostic device, an ultrasound diagnostic method, and a storage medium storing an ultrasound diagnostic program.
Related Art
When visualizing a needle by the transmission and reception of ultrasound waves, if the angle of the needle becomes an acute angle, the reflection deviates from the reception opening, as shown in FIG. 18A. In this case, it is not possible to receive the reflected wave from the needle. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 18B, a method of receiving the reflected wave from the needle by transmitting a transmission beam obliquely so that the transmission beam is perpendicular to the needle is known.
However, an image generated by tilting the transmission beam is not suitable to see the tissue since the image quality is degraded due to the influence of side lobes or the like.
Therefore, JP2012-213606A proposes that a first ultrasound image is generated by performing ultrasound transmission in a first direction, a second ultrasound image group is generated by transmitting ultrasound waves in a plurality of directions for the purpose of needle imaging, a needle image in which the needle is visualized is generated by analyzing the first image and the second image group or the brightness distribution of the second image group, and the first image and the needle image are combined.
As a method of visualizing the needle image, in addition to the method disclosed in JP2012-213606A, a technique disclosed in JP2010-51379A and the like have also been proposed.
JP2010-51379A proposes that an ultrasound beam having an intensity distribution around a first direction is transmitted from ultrasound transducers of a first group and an ultrasound image in a second direction different from the first direction is generated based on reception signals obtained by the reception of ultrasound echo signals of ultrasound transducers of a second group.
In the technique disclosed in JP2012-213606A, however, one tissue imaging and multiple needle imagings are required. For this reason, the frame rate is reduced.
In addition, in the technique disclosed in JP2010-51379A, a plane wave for which transmission focusing is not required is used. Accordingly, depending on the angle of the needle, reflected waves cannot be obtained at all. As a result, the needle may not be able to be visualized.
The present disclosure has been made in view of the above situation, and provides an ultrasound diagnostic device, an ultrasound diagnostic method, and a non-transitory storage medium storing an ultrasound diagnostic program capable of visualizing a reflector, such as a needle, other than the tissue without lowering the frame rate.